The present invention is in the field of multimedia telephony communication, which includes connection-orientated-switched-telephony (COST) and data-network-telephony (DNT), and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for facilitating a home communication-center data-connection capability for a roaming mobile knowledge worker.
In the field of telephony communication, there have been many improvements in technology over the years that have contributed to more efficient use of telephone communication within hosted call-center environments. Most of these improvements involve integrating the telephones and switching systems in such call centers with computer hardware and software adapted for, among other things, better routing of telephone calls, faster delivery of telephone calls and associated information, and improved service with regard to client satisfaction. Such computer-enhanced telephony is known in the art as computer-telephony integration (CTI).
There are many ways that CTI enhancement may be done in the art, and the present inventors are knowledgeable in most of these. The present inventors are also knowledgeable about many special architectures and software enhancements that are not in the public domain. In the following background material only that material specifically designated as prior art should be taken to be acknowledged as prior art material by the inventors.
Generally speaking, CTI implementations of various design and purpose are implemented both within individual call-centers and, in some cases, at the telephone network level. For example, processors running CTI software applications may be linked to telephone switches, service control points (SCPs), and network entry points within a public or private telephone network. At the call-center level, CTI processors are typically connected to telephone switches and, in some cases, to similar CTI hardware at the network level, often by a dedicated digital link. CTI processors and other hardware within a call-center is commonly referred to as customer premises equipment (CPE). It is the CTI processor and application software in such centers that provides computer software enhancement to a call center.
In a CTI-enhanced call center, telephones at agent stations are connected to a central telephony switching apparatus, such as an automatic call distributor (ACD) switch or a private branch exchange (PBX). The agent stations may also be equipped with computer terminals such as personal computer/video display unit""s (PC/VDU""s) so that agents using such stations may have access to stored data and enhanced services and tools as well as being linked to incoming callers by telephone equipment. Such stations may be, and usually are, interconnected through the PC/VDUs by a local area network (LAN). One or more data or transaction servers may also be connected to the LAN that interconnects agent stations. The LAN is, in turn, typically connected to the CTI processor, which is connected to the call switching apparatus of the call center in systems known to the present inventors.
When a call arrives at a call center, whether or not the call has been pre-processed at a service control point (SCP), typically at least the telephone number of the calling line is made available to the receiving switch at the call center by the network provider. This service is available by most networks as caller-ID information in one of several formats such as Automatic Number Identification (ANI). Typically the number called is also available through a service such as Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS). If the call center is computer-enhanced (CTI), the phone number of the calling party may be used, in systems known to the present inventors, as a key to access additional information from a customer information system (CIS) database at a server on the network that connects the agent workstations. In this manner information pertinent to a call may be provided to an agent, often as a screen pop on the agent""s PC/VDU.
In recent years, advances in computer technology, telephony equipment, and infrastructure have provided many opportunities for improving telephone service in public-switched and private telephone intelligent networks. Similarly, development of a separate information and data network known as the Internet, together with advances in computer hardware and software have led to a new multimedia telephone system known in the art by several names. In this new system telephone calls are simulated by multimedia computer equipment, and data, such as audio data, is transmitted over data networks as data packets. In this system the broad term used to describe such computer-simulated telephony is Data Network Telephony (DNT).
For purposes of nomenclature and definition, the inventors wish to distinguish clearly between what might be called conventional telephony, which is the telephone service enjoyed by nearly all citizens through local telephone companies and several long-distance telephone network providers, and what has been described herein as computer-simulated telephony or data-network telephony. The conventional systems are referred to herein as Connection-Oriented Switched-Telephony (COST) systems, CTI enhanced or not.
The computer-simulated, or DNT systems are familiar to those who use and understand computers and data-network systems. Perhaps the best example of DNT is telephone service provided over the Internet, which will be referred to herein as Internet Protocol Network Telephony (IPNT), by far the most extensive, but still a subset of DNT.
Both systems use signals transmitted over network links. In fact, connection to data networks for DNT such as IPNT is typically accomplished over local telephone lines, used to reach points in the network such as an Internet Service Provider (ISP), which then connects the user to the Internet backbone. The definitive difference is that COST telephony may be considered to be connection-oriented telephony. In the COST system, calls are placed and connected by a specific dedicated path, and the connection path is maintained over the time of the call. Bandwidth is basically assured. Other calls and data do not share a connected channel path in a COST system. A DNT system, on the other hand, is not dedicated or connection-oriented. That is, data, including audio data, is prepared, sent, and received as data packets over a data-network. The data packets share network links and available bandwidth, and may travel by varied and variable paths.
Recent improvements to available technologies associated with the transmission and reception of data packets during real-time DNT communication have enabled companies to successfully add DNT, principally IPNT, capabilities to existing CTI call centers. Such improvements, as described herein and known to the inventor, include methods for guaranteeing available bandwidth or quality of service (QoS) for a transaction, improved mechanisms for organizing, coding, compressing, and carrying data more efficiently using less bandwidth, and methods and apparatus for intelligently replacing lost data via using voice supplementation methods and enhanced buffering capabilities.
In addition to Internet protocol (IPNT) calls, a DNT center may also share other forms of media with customers accessing the system through their computers. E-mails, Video mails, fax, file share, file transfer, video calls, and so forth are some of the other forms of media which may be used. This capability of handling varied media leads to the term multimedia communications center. A multimedia communications center may be a combination CTI and DNT center, or may be a DNT center capable of receiving COST calls and converting them to a digital DNT format. The term communication center will replace the term call center hereinafter in this specification when referring to multimedia capabilities.
In typical communication centers, DNT is accomplished by Internet connection and IPNT calls. For this reason, IPNT and the Internet will be used in examples to follow. It should be understood, however, that this usage is exemplary, and not limiting.
In systems known to the inventors, incoming IPNT calls are processed and routed within an IPNT-capable communication center in much the same way as COST calls are routed in a CTI-enhanced call center, using similar or identical routing rules, waiting queues, and so on, aside from the fact that there are two separate networks involved. Communication centers having both CTI and IPNT capability utilize LAN-connected agent-stations with each station having a telephony-switch-connected headset or phone, and a PC connected, in most cases via LAN, to the network carrying the IPNT calls, or to a network-connected server on the LAN. Therefore, in most cases, IPNT calls are routed to the agent""s PC while conventional telephony calls are routed to the agent""s conventional telephone or headset. Typically separate lines and equipment are implemented for each type of call weather COST or IPNT.
Due in part to added costs associated with additional equipment, lines, and data ports that are needed to add IPNT capability to a CTI-enhanced call-center, developers are currently experimenting with various forms of integration between the older COST system and the newer IPNT system. For example, by enhancing data servers, interactive voice response units (IVR""s), agent-connecting networks, and so on, with the capability of conforming to Internet protocol, call data arriving from either network may be integrated requiring less equipment and lines to facilitate processing, storage, and transfer of data. Some such equipment and services are known to the present inventors, which are not in the public domain.
With many new communication products supporting various media types available to businesses and customers, a communication center must add significant application software to accommodate the diversity. For example, e-mail programs typically have differing parameters than do IP applications. IP applications are different regarding protocol than COST calls, and so on. Separate routing systems and/or software components are needed for routing e-mails, IP calls, COST calls, file sharing, etc. Agents must then be trained in the use of a variety of applications supporting the different types of media.
Keeping contact histories, reporting statistics, creating routing rules and the like becomes more complex as newer types of media are added to communication center capability. Additional hardware implementations such as servers, processors, etc. are generally required to aid full multimedia communication and reporting. Therefore, it is desirable that interactions of all multimedia sorts be analyzed, recorded, and routed according to enterprise (business) rules in a manner that provides seamless integration between media types and application types, thereby allowing agents to respond intelligently and efficiently to customer queries and problems.
In a system known to the inventor, full multimedia functionality is supported wherein agents and customers may interact in a seamless manner. Likewise interaction histories of virtually any supported media may be automatically recorded and stored for latter access by agents and in some cases customers (clients) themselves. Such a system, termed a customer-interaction-network-operating system (CINOS) by the inventor, comprises a suite of software enhancements, implemented both at the communication center and at CPE sites, that are designed to provide automated and seamless interaction between customers, associates, and agents.
In order to successfully implement and administer the many aspects of a network operating system such as the CINOS system introduced above, a new agent called a knowledge worker has emerged. This is especially true in more state-of-the-art multimedia communication-centers. In a broad sense, a knowledge worker may be any individual that specializes, or is expert in a specific field or fields utilized within the communication center. Knowledge workers may be responsible for such tasks as creating automated scripts, building integrated software applications, tracking and parsing certain history paths in a database for automated reporting, and other relatively complicated functions. Knowledge workers may also be trained agents responsible for sales, service and technical assistance.
A knowledge worker, weather an agent or specialized technician, generally has all of the resource in the way of customer data, interaction data, product data, and multimedia support at his fingertips as long as he or she is operating from a designated PC/VDU or other supported station within the communication center. In some cases, a knowledge worker may have full data access and multimedia support if he is located off-site but is linked to the center by a suitable data-network connection such as from a home office or remote station.
Because a network operating system such as CINOS requires that certain customer or client CPE, including network equipment, be enhanced with software designed to facilitate seamless interaction with the communication center, it is often necessary that knowledge workers be dispatched into the field away from the communication center to aid in such as installation, set-up, and programming of software applications and tools. In some instances this can be a formidable enterprise.
A knowledge worker possesses the kind of skills that are largely indispensable and not shared by the average communication center worker. When a knowledge worker is away from a home-center such as on the road, or at a client location, he is generally limited in data access and interaction capability with his or her home communication-center data and tools. In some cases this may be a liability to the center. In many cases she/he will be limited to specific data that was carried along, or that may be downloaded from the center to such as a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) or a Laptop computer. Moreover, a mobile knowledge worker in the field may also be limited in providing service to the home-center by virtue of the same data-access limitations.
In some cases, a knowledge worker at a client site may, after some set-up, programming, and initialization, commandeer a suitable client PC so that she/he may establish free and unfettered access to home-center data and software services. However, such interaction, if not on the be-half of the client, may be deemed by the client as an intrusion at most and an inconvenience at least.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus enabling full and unfettered access to home-center data and services for a mobile knowledge worker associated with the home center. Such a method and apparatus would allow a communication center to freely dispatch mobile knowledge workers to such as client locations or other areas within an exceptionally large communication campus or network of communication centers without feeling vulnerable to a loss of technical services. Moreover, such access would not have to rely on client associated resources.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in a communication center having agent work stations, server-based software tools, and server-based data storage, a system for enabling a remote agent, using a light computerized device having insufficient power to operate as a workstation of the communication center, to access and operate as an agent with full access to data and software tools of the communication center is provided, the system comprising a proxy server executing a software suite; a first two-way data link, between the proxy server and one of a server or a workstation at the communication center; and a second two-way data link between the proxy server and the light device used by the remote agent. The system is characterized in that the proxy server, by the software suite, upon establishing a connection over the second data link, ascertains hardware and software characteristics of the light device, establishes a connection to a server or a workstation at the communication center over the first two-way data link at direction of the light device, accesses data and operates software at the communication center on behalf of and according to direction from the light device, transforms the data and results of the software operations into a form useable by the light device, and transmits the transformed information to the light device via the second two-way data link.
In some embodiments the light device is one of a hand-held computer, a personal digital assistant, a portable laptop computer, and a cell telephone. The proxy server may be a LAN-connected server in the communication center, the first two-way data link being the communication center LAN. Further, the second two-way data link may be one of a dial-up telephone connection, a wireless connection, or a data-packet connection via the Internet.
In preferred embodiments the proxy server and the light computer device each execute an instance of a Nano-browser enabling Internet Protocol communication over the second data link. In other aspects of the invention methods for practicing the invention using the apparatus of the invention are taught. In the various embodiments of the invention, taught in enabling detail below, a remote knowledge worker or agent trained to operate in and with a communication center, is enabled to operate with full access to data and application software while using a light computer device itself unable to operate directly as a workstation in the communication center.